932a 

B<&324 
1897 


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UC-NRLF 


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Shakspere 

& 

Typography 


By 

JVilliam  Blades 


NEW  YORK  :    Edited  &  Reprinted 

by     The    Winthrop    Press     for     The 

American     Type     Founders     Company 

MD  CCC  XC  VII 


^INTRODUCTION 

N  the  good  old 
days  when 
printing  was 
better  recog- 
nized as  a  mystery  than 
as  an  art,  one  could  call 
a  printer  '  a  man  of  let- 
ters '  without  being  guil- 
ty of  a  pun.  Books 
were  for  the  few  then, 
and  the  man  who  would 
print  them  must  be 
somewhat  of  a  scholar 
himself. 

128 


The  INTRODUCTION 


To-day,  amid  the 
whirr  of  many  presses, 
and  the  hurrying  to  and 
fro  of  the  printing  office, 
the  printer  finds  little  or 
no  time  for  literary  pur- 
suits, despite  the  fact 
that  printing  is,  in  very 
truth,  the  handmaid  of 
literature.  It  is  the 
more  admirable,  there- 
fore, when  a  successful 
printer  attains  to  a  degree 
of  scholarship — particu- 
larly scholarship  in  mat- 
ters that  enlighten  and 
dignify  his  own  handi- 
craft. 

Such  a  printer  was 
William  Blades.      During 


The  INTRODUCTION 


fifty  years  of  active  bus- 
iness life  he  contributed 
to  the  history  of  printing, 
a  goodly  number  of 
books  and  a  mass  of 
miscellaneous  articles. 
Among  these  is  the  most 
complete  and  author- 
itative life  of  Caxton, 
England's  first  printer, 
representing  an  immense 
amount  of  study  and  re- 
search. 

The  book  from  which 
the  following  pages  are 
reprinted  is  perhaps  the 
least  familiar  of  Blades' 
works,  and  it  evidently 
was  written  as  a  literary 
recreation.    The  thought 


The  INTRODUCTION 


that  reading  it  may  afford 
recreation  to  those  busied 
about  the  making  of 
books,  and  the  com- 
parative scarcity  of  the 
only  edition,  are  the  ex- 
cuses for  reprinting  the 
more  interesting  portion. 
The  first  chapter 
(merely  a  resume  of  the 
theories  that  have  been 
advanced  by  various  pro- 
fessions and  callings  to 
claim  Shakspere  for  their 
own)  has  been  omitted; 
likewise  the  appendix, 
which  is  a  suggestion  that 
many  of  the  obscurities 
in  the  text  of  Shakspere 
may  be  cleared  up   by  a 


The  INTRODUCTION 


study  of  the  typograph- 
ical errors  in  the  first 
editions.  With  these  ex- 
ceptions, the  work  is 
given  here  entire,  and, 
it  is  hoped,  in  such  form 
as  accords  with  the  spirit 
of  the  author,  whose 
tastes  were  those  of  the 
scholarly  printer. 


Editorial  Dept. 

The   Winthrop   Press, 

32  Lafayette  Place,  N.    Y* 

November,  l8Q7 


"*SJP 


The  PREFACE 

rHE  First  Chapter  of  this  Tractate  is 
designed  to  show,  in  a  succinct  maimer , 
the  numerous  and  contradictory  theories  con- 
cerning Shakspere'' 's  special  knowledge,  the 
evidence  for  which  has  been  created  'by  'se- 
lecting '  certain  words  and  phrases  from  the 
mass  of  his  writings. 

The  Second  and  Third  Chapters,  erected 
on  a  similar  basis  of  '  selection ' ,  are  intend- 
ed to  prove  that  Shakspere  had  an  intimate 
and  special  knowledge  of  Typography. 

Old  Printers  can  still  call  to  mind  that 
period  of  our  history  when  a  stalwart  Press- 
man, on  his  way  to  work,  ran  considerable 
risk  in  the  streets  of  London  of  being  seized 
by  another  kind  of  pressmen,  viz. ,  the  Press- 
gang,  and forced  nolens  volens  into  the  service 
of  the  King.  Some  readers  {not  Printers*) 
may  think  that  I  have  exercised  over  quota- 
tions from  Shakspere''  s  works  a  similar  com- 
pulsion, by  pressing  into  my  service  passages 
whose  bearing  is  by  no  means  in  a  typo- 
graphical direction.  They  may  even  go  so 
far  as  to  strain  somewhat   the  self-accusation 


The  PREFACE 


of   Falstaff  (Hairy    IV,  iv,    2),  and  bring 
against  me  the  charge  that 

I  have  misused  the  King  s  press  most  damnably 

by  printing  such  evidences. 

I  can  only  reply  that  if  notwithstanding 
a  careful  consideration  of  the  proofs  here  laid 
before  him,  the  reader  should  consider  my 
case  l  not  proven'',  I  must  submit  with  all 
humility  to  his  penetration  and  judgment. 

At  the  same  time}  since  my  proofs  that 
Shakspere  was  a  Printer  are  at  least  quite  as 
conclusive  as  the  evidence  brought  forward  by 
others  to  demonstrate  that  he  was  Doctor, 
Lawyer,  Soldier,  Sailor,  Catholic,  Atheist, 
Thief,  I  would  claim  as  a  right  that  my  op- 
ponent, having  rejected  my  theory  that  he  was 
a  Printer,  should  be  consistent,  and  at  once, 
reject  all  theories  which  attribute  to  him 
special  knowledge,  and  repose  upon  the  simple 
belief  that  Shakspere,  the  Actor  and  Play- 
wright, was  a  man  of  surpassing  genius,  of  keen 
observation,  and  never- failing  memory. 

W.  B. 


I.    SHAKSPERE  IN  THE 
PRINTING  OFFICE 

IN  November,  1589,  the  company  acting 
at  the  Blackfriars  Theatre  thought  it 
would  be  advantageous  to  their  interests  to 
send  in  to  the  Privy  Council  a  memorial, 
certifying  that  they  had  never  given  cause  of 
displeasure  by  introducing  upon  the  stage 
'  matters  of  State  or  Religion  ' .  The  actors 
who  signed  this  memorial  styled  themselves 
'Her  Majesty's  Poor  Players',  and  among 
them  appears  the  name  of  William  Shaks- 
pere.  We  here  meet  the  Poet's  name  for 
the  first  time  after  he  had  left  his  home  at 
Stratford-on-Avon,  about  four  years  pre- 
viously. What  his  employment  had  been 
in  the  intervening  period  is  a  question  which 
few  of  his  biographers  have  cared  to  ask, 
and  which  not  one  has  answered. 

It  is  usually  supposed  that  immediately 
upon  his  arrival  in  London  he  became  in 
some  way  associated  with  the  Stage, — but 
there  is  no  evidence  of  this.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  shall  give  reasons  for  believing 
that  coming  to  London  poor,  needy,  and  in 

1  1 


SHAKSPERE  AND    TYPOGRAPHY 

search  of  employment,  he  was  immediately 
taken  into  the  service  of  Vautrollier  the 
Printer. 

Thomas  Vautrollier,  entitled  in  his 
patents  '  typographus  Londinensis,  in  claus- 
tro  vulgo  Blackfriers  commorans ',  was  a 
Frenchman  who  came  to  England  at  the 
commencement  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign. 
He  was  admitted  a  brother  of  the  Stationers' 
Company  in  1564,  and  commenced  busi- 
ness as  Printer  and  Publisher  in  Blackfriars, 
working  in  the  same  premises  up  to  the 
time  of  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1588. 
His  character  as  a  scholar  stands  high,  and 
his  workmanship  is  excellent.  He  had  a 
privilege,  or  monopoly,  for  the  printing  and 
sale  of  certain  books,  as  all  the  chief  Print- 
ers then  had.  Shortly  before  his  death  he 
married  his  daughter  to  Richard  Field,  who 
for  this  reason,  and  because  he  succeeded  to 
the  premises  and  business  of  the  widow,  is 
erroneously  supposed  by  Ames  to  have 
served  his  apprenticeship  to  Vautrollier. 
But  whv  bring  in  the  name  of  Richard 
Field  ?  The  replv  is  important.  Field 
was  Shakspere's  own  townsman,  and  being 
of  about  the  same  age  and  social  rank,  the 
boys  probably  grew  up  together  as  playfel- 
lows.     Field's  father,  Henry   Field,   was  a 

1  2 


SHAKSPERE   AND    TYPOGRAPHY 

Tanner  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  and  Halliwell 
says  'a  friend  of  Shakspere's  family'. 
Early  in  1578  young  Field  came  up  to  Lon- 
don, and  at  Michaelmas  was  apprenticed  for 
seven  years  to  George  Bishop,  Printer  and 
Publisher.  Being  in  the  same  trade  as 
Vautrollier,  Field  would  naturally  become 
acquainted  with  him;  and  in  1588,  a  year 
after  he  was  out  of  his  time,  he  married 
Vautrollier' s  daughter.  Here,  then,  we 
seem  to  have  a  missing  link  supplied  in  the 
chain  of  Shakspere's  history.  In  1585 
Shakspere  came  up  to  London  in  a  '  needy  ' 
state.  To  whom  would  he  be  more  likely 
to  apply  than  to  his  old  playmate  Richard 
Field.  Field,  a  young  man  nearly  out  of 
his  apprenticeship,  on  terms  of  intimacy 
with  Vautrollier,  could  do  nothing  better 
than  recommend  him  to  the  father  of  his 
future  wife.  Once  introduced  we  may  be 
sure  that  Shakspere,  with  his  fund  of  wit 
and  good  humour,  would  always  be  a  wel- 
come guest  ;  and  that  this  friendly  feeling 
was  maintained  between  him  and  the  Vau- 
trollier-Field  families  receives  confirmation 
from  the  fact  that  Richard  Field,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  the  shop  and  business  soon  after 
the  death  of  his  father-in-law,  actually  put 
to  press  the  two  first  printed  works  of  the 

13 


SHAKSPERE   AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

great  Poet,  the  '  Venus  and  Adonis',  1593, 
and  the  'Lucrece',  1594. 

Here  then,  in  Vautrollier's  employ,  per- 
haps as  a  Press-reader,  perhaps  as  an 
Assistant  in  the  shop,  perchance  as  both,  we 
imagine  Shakspere  to  have  spent  about  three 
years  upon  his  first  arrival  in  the  metropolis. 
Placed  thus  in  Blackfriars,  close  to  the 
Theatre,  close  to  the  Taverns,  close  to  the 
Inns  of  Court,  and  in  what  was  then  a 
fashionable  neighbourhood,  Shakspere  en- 
joyed excellent  opportunities  of  acquiring  a 
knowledge  of  men  and  manners. 

Field  did  not  succeed  Vautrollier  imme- 
diately upon  his  death.  His  widow  endea- 
voured for  some  time  to  carry  on  the  busi- 
ness alone ;  but  for  some  unknown  reason 
the  Stationers'  Company  withheld  their 
license  ;  and  after  a  fruitless  effort  to  obtain 
it,  she  was  succeeded  by  her  son-in-law. 
These  business  changes  would  probably  be 
the  occasion  of  which  Shakspere  eagerly 
availed  himself  to  join  the  Players  at  the 
neighbouring  theatre. 

The  Sonnets,  although  not  printed  until 
1609,  are  generally  acknowledged  to  be 
among  Shakspere' s  earliest  efforts,  and  we 
cannot  help  imagining  that  Sonnet  XXIV 
was  written  while  in    the  employment    of 

H 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

Vautrollier;  or  at  any  rate,  while  the  shop, 
hung  round   with  prints,   was   fresh  in  the 
Poet's   memory.        May  be    some   of  their 
warmth  was  inspired   by  the   charms  of  the 
buxom    widow   herself   who   was    apostro- 
phised by  the  Poet  when  wishing  her 
To  find  where  your  true  image  pictured  lies, 
Which  in  my  bosom's  shop  is  hanging  still, 
That  hath  his  ivindoivs  glazed   with  thine  eyes. 

Sonnet  xxiv. 

At  any  rate,  we  have  here  in  three  lines  as 
many  metaphors,  and  all  derived  from  just 
such  employment  as  we  suppose  Shakspere 
at  that  time  to  have  been  engaged  in. 

Then,  again,  to  a  Printer's  widow,  not 
over  young,  what  more  telling  than  the  fol- 
lowing reference  ? 

Or  what  strong  hand  can  hold  Time's  swift  foot  back  ? 

Or  who  his  spoil  of  beauty  can  forbid  ? 

O,  none,  unless  this  miracle  have  might, 

That  in  black  ink  my  love  may  still  shine  bright. 

Sonnet  lxvi. 

Note  here,  that  the  jet  black  ink  which 
everybody  admires  in  old  manuscripts  was 
much  too  thick  for  a  running  hand,  and  had 
long  been  superseded  by  a  writing  fluid 
which,  in  the  1 6th  century,  was  far  from 
equalling  the  bright  gloss  of  Printing  Ink. 

Before  turning  to  the  internal  evidence 
supplied  by  Shakspere' s  writings  in  support 

J5 


SHAKSPERE  AND    TYPOGRAPHY 

of  our  theory,  let  us  glance  at  the  list  of 
works  printed  and  published  by  Vautrollier, 
and  see  if  Shakspere  reflected  any  trace  of 
their  influence  upon  his  mind. 

From  Herbert's  'Typographical  Anti- 
quities '  we  find  that  in  the  *  Shop  '  would 
be  the  two  following  works  : 

A  brief  Introduction  to  Mufic.  Collected 
by  P.  DeIamotey  a  Frenchman ;    Licenfed. 

London,  8vo.,   i  5 74. 

Difcurfus    Cantiones ;   qua    ab  argumento 
facr<£    vocantur,    quinque     et  fex   partivm. 
Autoribus  Thoma  Tallijio  et  Guilielmo  Bir- 
do.      Cum  Privilegio. 

London ,  oblong  quarto,   1575. 

Delamote's  Introduction,  as  well  as  the 
Sacred  Songs  by  Tallis  and  Bird,  were 
Vautrollier' s  copyright,  and  we  have  already 
seen  how  intimate  an  acquaintance  Shak- 
spere had  with  music.  Might  not  the  above 
works  have  been  the  mine  from  which  he 
obtained  his  knowledge  ? 

Of  religious  works,  Vautrollier  printed 
and  published  several,  all  in  accordance 
with  the  principles  of  the  great  Reforma- 
tion, and  the  writer  who  argued  that  from 
his  intimate  knowledge  of  the  tenets  of 
Calvin,  Shakspere  must  have  been  himself  a 
Calvinist,      would     have     found     sufficient 

16 


SHAKSPERE   AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

explanation  of  his  special  knowledge  in  the 
following  books  from  Vautrollier's  press  : 

The  Neu  Teflament,  with  diverfities  of 
Reading  and  profitable  annotations.  An 
epiftle  by  J.   Calvin,  prefixed. 

4to.,  1575: 

Injlitvtio  Chrifliance  Religionis,  Joanne 
Caluino  author'e. 

8vo.,  London,  1576  :  and 

The  Infiitution  of  Chrifiian  Religion  [not 
in  Herbert's  Ames]  written  in  Latine,  by 
Mr.  John  Calvine,  and  tranflated  into  Eng- 
UJh  by  Thomas  Norton.  Imprinted  at 
London,  by  Thomas  Vautrollier. 

8vo.,   1578. 

This  last  contains  an  Epistle  to  the  Reader 
by  John  Calvin,  as  well  as  an  address  headed 
Typographies  Lectori.  Of  each  of  the  above 
works  several  editions  were  published. 

In  one  of  his  pedantic  speeches  Holo- 
fernes  exclaims  : 

Venetia  !   Venetia  ! 

Chi  non  te  vede  non  ti  pretia. 
Old    Mantuan  !     Old   Mantuan  !   who  understandeth 
thee  not,  loveth  thee  not. 

Love's  Labour  Lost,  iv,  2. 

Where  did  Shakspere  learn  his  Italian, 
which,  although   then   a  court  language,  he 


SHAKSPERE   AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

quotes  but  rarely,  and  in  an  awkward  man- 
ner ?  Surely  at  second-hand,  and  probably 
quoting  the  phrases  current  at  the  period,  or 
still  more  probably  from  conning  in  his 
spare  moments  : 

An  Italian  Grammer,  written  in  Latin  by 
M.  Scipio  Lentulo  :  and  turned  into  Englijbe 
by  Henry  Grantham.  Typis  Tho.  Vautro- 
lerij.  London,   i6mo.,    1578. 

This  was  put  to  press  again  in  1587.  In 
Vautrollier's  *  shop  '  he  would  also  have 
often  in  his  hands  : 

Campo  di  Fior ;  or  elfe  the  Flourie  field 
of  four  e  Languages,  for  the  furtherance  of 
the  learners  of  the  Latine,  French,  Englijh, 
but  chiefly  of  the  Italian  tongue.  Imprinted 
at  London,  by  Thos.  Vautrollier,  dwelling  in 
the  Black  Friers  by  Ludgate. 

i6mo.,  1583. 
Here,  again,  we  have  a  very  extensive 
Italian  vocabulary  upon  all  common  subjects 
quite  sufficient  for  an  occasional  quotation  ; 
as  to  the  plots  taken  from  Italian  sources, 
such  as  '  Romeo  and  Juliet',  it  seems  to  be 
now  generally  admitted  that  Shakspere  in 
every  instance  followed  the  English  transla- 
tions. 

But  Shakspere  knew  also  a  little  French, 
and  uses  a  few  colloquial  sentences  here  and 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

there.      In  one  play  indeed,  Henry  V,  in.  4, 
there  is  a  short  scene  between  the  Princess 
and  her  attendant,    in  alternate   French  and 
English,  which  reads  almost  like  a  page  of  a 
Vocabulary.       Shakspere's     knowledge     of 
Latin  was  apparently  about  the  same  in  ex- 
tent ;  and   for  the  uses  to   which   he  has  ap- 
plied both  tongues,   the    Flourie    Field    of 
Four    Languages,    already    quoted      as    the 
source  of  his  Italian,  would  be  quite  suffi- 
cient.     If  not,   he  had  the  opportunity    of 
consulting  under  his  master's  roof 

A  Treatife  on  French  Verbs. 

8vo.,    1580. 

A  moft  eajte,  perfecl,  and  abfolute  way  to 
learne  the  Frenche  tongue. 

8vo.,   1  581  ;  and 

Phrafes  Lingua  Latin ce.  8vo.,  1579  ; 
the  last  compiled  from  the  writings  of  that 
great  Printer,  Aldus  Manutius. 

Some  of  Shakspere's  biographers  have 
maintained  that  he  must  have  been  acquainted 
with  Plutarch  and  other  classical  writers, 
because  he  quotes  from  their  works.  Dr. 
Farmer  in  his  masterly  essay  on  the  learn- 
ing of  Shakspere,  has  shown  that  the  Poet 
took  all  his  quotations,  even  to  the  blunders, 
from  the  edition  of  Plutarch,  in  English, 
printed  and  published   by  Vautrollier,  a  year 

19 


SHAKSPERE   AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

or  two    before  we  suppose  that    Shakspere 
entered  into  his  service  : 

Plutarch's  Lives,  from  the  French  of 
Amyott,  by  Sir  Tho.  North.      Licenfed. 

Folio,   1579. 

Moreover,  Vautrollier,  who  was  a  good 
scholar,  appears  to  have  had  a  great  liking 
for  Ovid.  He  printed  Ovid'' s  Metamor- 
phoses, Ovid's  Epistles,  and  Ovid's  Art  of 
Love.  Now  it  is  a  notable  fact  that  al- 
though Shakspere,  unlike  contemporary 
writers  who  abound  in  classical  allusions, 
scarcely  ever  mentions  a  Latin  poet,  and 
still  more  seldom  a  Greek  poet,  yet  he 
quotes  Ovid  several  times  : 

As  Ovid,  be  an  outcast  quite  abjured. 

Taming   of  the  Shreiv,  i,   I. 

Tit.      Lucius,  what  book  is  that  she  tosseth  so  ? 
Luc.      Grandsire,  'tis  Ovid's   Metamorphoses. 

Titus,  iv,  1. 

I  am  here  with  thee  and  thy  goats  as  the  most 
capricious  poet,  honest  Ovid  was  among  the  Goths. 

As  You  Like  It,  iii,  3. 

Ovidius  Naso  was  the  man. 

Love'' s  Labour  Lost,  iv,  2. 

Of  Cicero's  Oration  Vautrollier  issued 
several  editions,  and  had  the  privilege  '  ad 
imprimendum   solum  '  granted   him  ;   and  to 

20 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

this    work  also,  on  at  least  two  occasions, 

Shakspere  refers  : 

Hath  read  to  thee 
Sweet  poetry  and  Tully's  Orator. 

Titus,  iv,  i. 

Sweet  TuUy. 

2  Henry  VI,  iv,   I. 

The  fact  to  be  noted  with  reference  to 
these  classical  quotations  is  this  :  Shakspere 
quotes  those  Latin  authors,  and  those  only, 
of  which  Vautrollier  had  a  '  license  '  ;  and 
makes  no  reference  to  other  and  popular 
writers,  such  as  Virgil,  Pliny,  Aurelius,  and 
Terence,  editions  of  whose  works  Vautrol- 
lier was  not  allowed  to  issue,  but  all  of 
which,  and  especially  the  last,  were  great 
favorites  in  the  sixteenth  century,  as  is  shown 
by  the  numerous  editions  which  issued  from 
the  presses  of  Vautrollier' s  fellow-craftsmen. 

Among  other  publications  of  Vautrollier 
was  an  English  translation  of  Ludovico 
GuicciardinV  s  Description  of  the  Low 
Countries,  originally  printed  in  1567.  In 
this  work  is  one  of  the  earliest  accounts  of 
the  invention  of  printing  at  Haarlem,  which 
is  thus  described  in  the  Batavia  of  Adrianus 
Junius,  1575.  'This  person  [Coster]  dur- 
ing his  afternoon  walk,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Haarlem,     amused     himself     with     cutting 

21 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

letters  out  of  the  bark  of  the  beech  tree, 
and  with  these,  the  characters  being  inverted 
as  in  seals,  he  printed  small  sentences.' 
The  idea  is  cleverly  adapted  by  Orlando  : 

these  trees  shall  be  my  books 
And  in  their   barks  my  thoughts  I  '11  character. 
As    Tou  Like  It}  iii,  2. 

Lastly,  it  would  be  an  interesting  task  to 
compare  the  Mad  Folk  of  Shakspere,  most 
of  whom  have  the  melancholy  fit,  with 

A  Treatife  of  Melancholie :  containing  the 
Caufes  thereof  and  Reafons  of  the  Strange 
Effecls  it  worketh  in  our   Minds  and  Bodies. 

London,  8vo.,  I  586. 
This  was  printed  by  Vautrollier,  and  prob- 
ably read  carefully  for  press  by  the  youth- 
ful Poet. 

The  disinclination  of  Shakspere  to  see  his 
plays  in  print  has  often  been  noticed  by  his 
biographers,  and  is  generally  accounted  for 
by  the  theory  that  reading  the  plays  in  print 
would  diminish  the  desire  to  hear  them  at 
the  theatre.  This  is  a  very  unsatisfactory 
reason,  and  not  so  plausible  as  the  supposi- 
tion that,  sickened  with  reading  other 
people's  proofs  for  a  livelihood,  he  shrunk 
from  the  same  task  on  his  own  behalf.  His 
contemporaries  do  not  appear  to  have  shared 
in   the  same  typographical  aversion.       The 

22 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

plays  of  Ben  Jonson  and  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher  were  all  printed  in  the  life-time  of 
their  authors.  Francis  Quarles  had  the 
satisfaction  and  pride  of  seeing  all  his  works 
in  printed  form,  and  showed  his  appreciation 
and  knowledge  of  Typography  by  the  fol- 
lowing quaint  lines,  which  we  quote  from 
the  first  edition,  literatim  : 

On  a  Printing-houfe. 

THE  world  *s  a  Printing-houfe :   our  words,  our 
thoughts. 
Our  deeds,  are  Characters  of  sev'rall  (izes : 
Each  Soule  is  a  Compof'ter  5  of  whofe  faults 
The  Levits  are  Correctors  :    Heav'n  revifes  j 
Death  is  the  common  Prefs ;  fr°  whence,  being  driven, 
W  are  gathered  Sheet  by  Sheet }  &  bound  for  Heaven. 
From  Divine  Fancies     1 632,  lib.  iv,   p.   1 64. 


23 


II.  THE  TECHNICALITIES 
OF  PRINTING,  AS  USED 
BY  SHAKSPERE 

NATURE  endows  no  man  with  knowl- 
edge, and  although  a  quick  apprehen- 
sion may  go  far  toward  making  the  true 
lover  of  Nature  a  Botanist,  Zoologist,  or 
Entomologist,  and  although  the  society  of 
'Men  of  Law',  of  Doctors,  or  of  Musi- 
cians may,  with  the  help  of  a  good  memory, 
store  a  man's  mind  with  professional  phrase- 
ology, yet  the  opportunity  of  learning  must 
be  there  ;  and  no  argument  can  be  required 
to  prove  that,  however  highly  endowed 
with  genius  or  imagination,  no  one  could 
evolve  from  his  internal  consciousness  the 
terms,  the  customs,  or  the  working  imple- 
ments of  a  trade  with  which  he  was  unac- 
quainted. If,  then,  we  find  Shakspere's 
mind  familiar  with  the  technicalities  of  such 
an  art  as  Printing — an  art  which,  in  his  day, 
had  no  such  connecting  links  with  the  com- 
mon needs  and  daily  pleasures  of  the  people, 
as  now — if  we  find  him  using  its  terms  and 
referring  frequently  to  its  customs,  our 
claims   to   call   him  a   Printer  stand  upon    a 

25 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

firmer  base  than  those  of  the  Lawyer,  the 
Doctor,  the  Soldier,  or  the  Divine ;  and  we 
have  strong  grounds  for  asking  the  reader's 
thoughtful  attention  to  some  quotations  and 
arguments,  which,  if  not  conclusive  that 
Shakspere  was  a  Printer,  afford  indubitable 
evidence  of  his  having  become  at  some 
period  of  his  career  practically  acquainted 
with  the  details  of  a  Printing  Office.  We 
propose,  then,  to  carefully  examine  the 
works  of  the  Poet  for  any  internal  evidence 
of  Typographical  knowledge  which  they 
may  afford. 

But  here,  at  the  outset,  we  are  met  by 
obvious  difficulties.  Would  Shakspere,  or 
any  poet  have  made  use  of  trade  terms  and 
technical  words,  or  have  referred  to  cus- 
toms peculiar  to  and  known  by  only  a  very 
small  class  of  the  community  in  plays  ad- 
dressed to  the  general  public  ?  They  might 
have  been  familiar  enough  to  the  mind  of 
the  writer,  but  would  certainly  have  sounded 
very  strange  in  the  ears  of  the  public. 
Shakspere  was  too  artistic  and  too  wise  to 
have  committed  so  glaring  a  blunder.  His 
technical  terms  are  used  unintentionally, 
and  with  the  most  charming  unconsciousness. 
Therefore,  when  we  meet  with  a  word  or 
phrase  in  common  use  by   Printers,  it  is  so 

26 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

amalgamated  with  the  context,  that  although 
some  other  form  of  expression  would  have 
been  chosen  had  not  Shakspere  been  a 
Printer,  yet  the  general  reader  or  hearer  is 
not  struck  by  any  incongruity  of  language. 
What  simile  could  be  more  natural  for  a 
Printer-poet  to  use  or  more  appropriate  for 
the  public  to  hear  than  this  : 

Your  mother  was  most  true  to  wedlock,  prince  ; 

For  she  did  print  your  royal  father  off, 

Conceiving  you. 

Winter"" s  Ta/e,  v,   I. 

Here,  surely,  the  Printer's  daily  experience 
of  the  exact  agreement  between  the  face  of 
the  type  and  the  impression  it  yields  must 
have  suggested  the  image. 

Printers  in  Shakspere' s  time  often  had 
patents  granted  them  by  which  the  monopoly 
of  certain  works  was  secured  ;  and  unscru- 
pulous printers  frequently  braved  all  the 
pains  and  penalties  to  which  they  were  liable 
by  pirating  such  editions.  It  is  this  care- 
lessness of  consequences  which  is  glanced  at 
by  Mistress  Ford  when  debating  with 
Mistress  Page  concerning  the  insult  put 
upon  them  by  the  heavy  old  Knight,  Sir 
John  Falstaff: 

He  cares  not  what  he  puts  into  the   Press  when  he 

would  put  us  two. 

Merry  Wi-ves,  ii,   I. 

27 


SHAKSPERE   AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

What  printer  is  there  who  has  put  to 
press  a  second  edition  of  a  book  working 
page  for  page  in  a  smaller  type  and  shorter 
measure  but  will  recognise  the  Typographer's 
reminiscences  in  the  following  description  of 
Leontes'  babe  by  Paulina  : 

Behold,  my  Lords, 
Although  the  print  be  little,  the  whole  matter 
And  copy  of  the  father 
The  very   mould  and.  frame  of  hand,  nail,  finger. 

Winter's    Tale,  ii,  3. 

Is  it  conceivable  that  a  sentence  of  four 
lines  containing  five  distinct  typographical 
words,  three  of  which  are  especially  tech- 
nical, could  have  proceeded  from  the  brain 
of  one  not  intimately  acquainted  with  Ty- 
pography. Again,  would  Costard  have  so 
gratuitously  used  a  typographical  idea,  had 
not  the  Poet's  mind  been  teeming  with 
them  r 

I  will  do  it,  sir,  in  print. 

Lo-ve' s  Labour  Lost,  iii,   1. 

The  deep  indentation  made  on  the  re- 
ceiving paper  when  the  strong  arm  of  a 
lusty  pressman  had  pulled  the  bar  with  too 
great  vigour  is  glanced  at  here  : 

Think  when  we  talk  of  horses  that  you  see  them 
Printing  their  proud  hoofs  i'  the  receiving  earth. 

Henry  V,  Chorus. 

28 


SHAKSPERE   AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

The  frequency    with    which    the   words 
print  or  imprint  are  used   is  very  noticeable: 

The  story  that  is  printed  in  her  blood. 

Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  iv,   I. 

I  love  a  ballad  in  print. 

Winter' s  Tale,  iv,  4. 

She  did  print  your  royal   father  off  conceiving  you. 

Winter's  Tale,  v,   I. 

You  are  but  as  a.  form  in  wax,  by  him  imprinted. 

Midsummer-Night' s  Dream,  i,   I. 

His  heart      .      .      .      with  vour  print  impressed. 

Love's  Labour  Lost,  ii,   1. 

I  will  do  it,  sir,  in  print. 

Love's  Labour  Lost,  iii,   1. 

This  weak  impress  of  love. 

Tivo  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  iii,  2. 

To  print  thy  sorrows  plain. 

Titus  Andronicus,  iv,   I. 

Sink  thy  knee  i'  the  earth  ; 
Of  thy  deep  duty,  more  impression  show 

Coriolanus,  v,   3. 

Some  more  time 
Must  wear  the  print  of  his  remembrance  out. 

Cymbe/ine,  ii,   3. 

The  impressure. 

Twelfth   Night,  ii,  5. 

He  will  print  them,  out  of  doubt. 

Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  ii,   1. 

We  quarrel  in  print,  by  the   book. 

As  You  Like  It,  v,  4. 

29 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

Let  it  stamp  wrinkles  in  her  brow. 

Lear,  i,  4. 
His  sword  death's  stamp. 

Coriolanus,  ii,  2. 

Hear  how  deftly  Title-pages  are  treated  : 

Sim.      Knights, 
To  say  you  're  welcome  were  superfluous. 
To  place  upon  the  'volume  of  your  deeds, 
As  in  a  title-page,  your  worth  of  arms, 
Were  more  than  you  expect,  or  more  than  's  fit. 

Pericles,  ii,  3. 

Hear,  too,  Northumberland,  who  thus 
addresses  the  bearer  of  fearful  news  : 

This  man's  brow,  like  to  a  title-leaf, 
Foretells  the  nature  of  a  tragic  'volume. 

2  Henry  IV,  \,   1. 

Evidently    Shakspere    had    a    good    idea  of 
what  a  Title-page  should  contain. 

From  Title  to  Preface  is  but  a  turn  of 
the  leaf,  and  its  introductory  character  is 
thus  noticed: 

Is  but  a  Preface  of  her  worthy   praise, 
The  chief  perfections  of  that  lovely  dame. 

I  Henry  VI,  v,  5. 

We  must  not  forget  a  well-known  passage 
about  the  introduction  of  Printing  to  Eng- 
land, which  has  caused  much  discussion.  It 
is  where  Jack  Cade  accuses  Lord  Saye  : 

Thou  hast  most  traitorously  corrupted  the  youth  of 
the  realm  in  erecting  a  grammar-school  :  and  whereas, 
before,   our   forefathers  had  no  other    books  but    the 

30 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

score  and  the  tally,  thou  hast  caused  printing  to  be 
used  5  and,  contrary  to  the  king,  his  crown,  and 
dignity,  thou  hast  built  a  paper  mill. 

2  Henry  VI  t  iv,  7. 

The  early-invented  fable  of  Faustus,  and 
the  assistance  given  him  by  the  Devil  in  the 
multiplication  of  the  first  printed  bibles  (cer- 
tainly a  most  short-sighted  step  on  the  part 
of  his  Satanic  Majesty)  had  got  fixed  in  the 
minds  of  the  populace,  and  created  among 
the  ignorant  a  prejudice  against  the  Printing- 
press,  and  it  was  to  this  feeling  Jack  Cade 
appealed.  All  our  Chroniclers  place  the 
erection  of  a  Printing-press  in  England  some 
years  too  early,  but  no  one  except  Shakspere 
has  put  the  date  so  far  back  as  1450,  the 
date  of  Jack  Cade's  insurrection  :  it  is  simply 
a  blunder ;  but  it  was  the  Printing-press  and 
its  introduction  to  this  country  that  was  in 
the  Author's  brain,  and  the  exact  date  of 
that  event  was  unknown,  being  probably  as 
difficult  to  arrive  at  then  as  it  is  now.* 


*  The  exact  date  ivas  probably  as  difficult  to  arrive 
at  then  as  now.  The  arrival  of  William  Caxton  in 
England  may,  with  a  certainty  of  being  near  the  truth, 
be  placed  in  1475-6,  the  date  1474  given  by  most 
writers  being  a  misconception  of  the  language  used  by 
Caxton  in  the  Preface  to  the  Chess-book.  The  Art 
on  its  first  introduction  was  looked  upon  suspiciously  by 

31 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

We  have  already  noticed  in  how  simple  a 
manner  originated  that  grand  discovery 
which,  instead  of  one  perishable  manuscript, 
produced  numberless  printed  books,  and 
thus  enabled  mankind  to  perpetuate  for  ever 
the  knowledge  they  had  gained.  The  real 
superiority  of  the  Press  over  the  pen  was 
the  easy  multiplication  of  copies,  and  this 
was  the  idea  in  the  Poet's  brain  when  he 
wrote  : 

She  carved  thee  for  her  seal  and  meant  thereby 
Thou  shouldst  print  more  nor  let  that  copy  die. 

Sonnet  xi. 


the  people,  few  of  whom  could  read,  its  chief  patrons 
being  a  few  of  the  more  educated  among  the  nobles  and 
the  rich  burghers  of  London.  Another  mistake  is  to 
suppose  that  Caxton  printed  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
His  printing-office  was  a  tenement  to  the  south-east  of 
the  Abbey  Church;  its  sign  was  the  '  Red-pale',  and 
Caxton  rented  it  of  the  Abbot.  There  is  evidence  to 
show  that  Caxton  and  the  Abbot  were  on  distant 
terms  of  amity — none  to  show  that  the  Ecclesiastic 
encouraged  or  patronised  the  Printer,  notwithstanding 
Dean  Stanley's  assertions  in  a  sermon  lately  preached 
by  him  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The  only  occasion 
upon  which  Caxton  mentions  the  Abbot  is  to  this 
effect — that  the  Abbot,  not  being  able  himself  to  read 
a  passage  in  old  MS.,  sent  it  to  Caxton,  with  a  request 
that  he  would  translate  it.  (See  The  Life  and  Ty- 
pography of  William  Caxton,  by  William  Blades.  2 
vols.,   4to.      London,  1861-63.) 

32 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

Type-founding  has  in  these  days  arrived 
at  such  perfection,  that  most  of  the  blemishes 
and  faults  common  in  Shakspere's  time  are 
now  unknown.  Under  the  old  system  of 
hand  moulds  a  type  founder  was  sure  when 
commencing  work  to  cast  a  certain  number 
of  imperfect  letters,  because  until  the 
mould  by  use  got  warmed,  the  liquid  metal 
solidified  too  soon,  and  the  body  or  shank  of 
the  type  was  shrunk,  and  became  no  inap- 
propriate emblem  of  an  old  man's  limbs 
whose  hose  would  be 

A  world  too  wide  for  his  shrunk  shank. 

As  Ton  Like  It,  ii,  7. 

The  names  of  the  various  sizes  of  type 
in  the  sixteenth  century  were  few  compared 
with  our  modern  list  ;  Canon,  Great  Primer, 
Pica,  Long  Primer,  and  Brevier  almost  com- 
plete the  catalogue  ;  and  however  familiar 
Shakspere  may  have  been  with  their  names, 
it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  scene  in  which 
these  technical  names  could  be  introduced 
with  propriety.  Yet,  of  one,  Nonpareil,  a 
new  small  type  first  introduced  from  Holland 
about  1650,  and  which  for  its  beauty  and 
excellence  was  much  admired,  Shakspere 
seems  to  have  conceived  a  most  favorable 
idea.  Prospero,  praising  his  daughter,  calls 
her  'a  Nonpareil'  (  Tempest,  Act  iii,  Sc.  2)  ; 

33 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

Olivia  is  the  '  Nonpareil  of  beauty ' 
(  Twelfth  Night,  Act  i,  Scene  5);  and  Post- 
humus  speaks  of  Imogen  as  the  '  Nonpareil 
of  her  time'  (Cymbeline,  Act  ii,  Scene  5). 
The  exactitude  and  precision  of  every- 
thing connected  with  the  arrangement  of 
printing  from  types  is  curiously  hinted  at  by 
Touchstone,  when  describing  the  precise- 
ness  of  the  Courtiers'  quarrels  : 

We  quarrel  in  print  by  the  book. 

As  You  Like  It,  v,  4- 

that  is,  no  step  was  taken  except  according 
to  acknowledged  rules. 

It  often  happens  when  a  book  comes  to 
its  last  sheet  that  the  text  runs  short,  and 
two  or  three  blank  or  vacant  pages  remain 
at  the  end.  In  the  middle  of  one  of  these 
it  is  usual  to  place  the  typographer's  imprint. 
What  compositor  is  there  who  has  rejoiced 
in  such  fat  pages  *  but  will  not  at  once  rec- 
ognise the  following  allusion  : 

The  •vacant  leaves  thy  mind's  imprint  will  bear, 
And  of  this  book  this  learning  mayst  thou  taste. 

Sonnet  lxxvii. 

*  Fat  Pages.  l  Fat '  as  a  conventional  word  is 
not  confined  to  Printers.  '  A yiz*  living  '  is  a  phrase 
not  unknown  among  churchmen,  and  is  used  in  the 
same  sense  by  the  compositor,  who  charges  the  master- 
printer  for  the  fat  pages,  in  which  no  work  appears, 
at  the  same  rate  as  if  they  were  full. 

34 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

People  with  a  grievance  write  now-a-days 
to  the  Newspapers,  in  hope  of  redress.  In 
Shakspere's  time  the  only  method  to  make 
wrongs  public  and  to  show  up  abuses  was 
by  the  Broadside,  in  prose  or  rhyme,  pass- 
ing from  hand  to  hand.  Many  of  these 
have  survived  to  the  present  day,  and  are 
treasured  up  as  curious  relics  of  a  by-gone 
age.  They  were  frequently  libellous  and 
grievously  personal,  and  hence  the  point  of 
Pistol's  remark  : 

Fear  we  broadsides  ? 

2  Henry  IV,  ii,  4. 

We  must  not  think  here  that  the  naval 
'  broadside  ' — a  volley  of  guns  from  the 
broadside  of  a  ship — is  meant.  Shakspere 
does  not  use  the  word  once  in  that  sense, 
nor  was  it  a  conversational  word  in  his 
time.  That  Pistol  was  indeed  thinking  of  a 
printed  broad  sheet  is  evident  from  the 
whole  sentence,  which,  although  composed 
of  disjointed  exclamations  continues  with  the 
following  expressions,  both  strongly  sug- 
gestive of  the  Composing  room  or  Reader's 
closet  : 

Come  we  to  full  points  here  ?  and  are  etceteras 
nothing  ? 

2   Henry  IV,  ii,  4. 

35 


SHAKSPERE   AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

'  Come  we  to  full  points  here  ? '  This 
question  is  often  a  puzzler  for  both  Com- 
positor and  Reader.  Indeed,  few  things 
cause  more  disagreements  between  Author 
and  Printer  than  the  very  loose  ideas  held 
by  the  former  concerning  punctuation. 
Some  writers,  like  Dickens  in  his  early  days, 
insist  upon  ornamenting  their  sentences  with 
little  dashes  and  big  dashes,  with  colons 
where  commas  should  be,  and  with 

Points  that  seem   impossible. 

Pericles,  v,   I . 

In  vain   does    the   Printer  declare  that  in  al- 
tering the  Author's  unregulated  punctuation, 

No  levelled  malice  infests  one  comma, 

Timon,  \,   i, 

the  irate  Author  exclaims,  that  he 

Puts  the  period  often  from  his  place, 

Lucrece,  1   565, 

and  adds,  'Follow 

My  point  and  period      ...      ill  or  well. 

Lear,  iv,  7. 

You  find  not  the  apostrophes,  and  so  miss  the  accent. 
Love's  Labour  Lost,  iv.  2. 


Wherefore  stand  you  on  nice  points  ? 

3  Henry  VI,  iv,  7. 


36 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

The  Printer  has  no  resource  but  compliance, 
which,  however,  unless  the  affront  be  very 
severe,  will  soon 

Stand  a  comma  'tween  their  amities, 

Hamlet,   v,  2, 

and  thus  heal  the  breach,  and  end  all  hap- 
pily with  mutual 

Notes  of  Admiration. 

Winter1 's  Tale,  v,  2. 

'  And  are  etceteras  nothing  ? '  What  a 
typographical  question  !  and  probably  the 
only  occasion  on  which  so  unpoetical  a 
figure  has  done  duty  in  any  drama.  The 
&c.  makes  an  insignificant  appearance  in 
either  MS.  or  type,  and  yet  how  often  it 
stands  for  whole  pages  of  matter.  Hence 
the  point  of  the  question. 

If  a  book  is  folio,  and  two  pages  of  type 
have  been  composed,  they  are  placed  in 
proper  position  upon  the  imposing  stone,  and 
enclosed  within  an  iron  or  steel  frame  called 
a  'chase',  small  wedges  of  hard  wood 
termed  '  coigns '  or  '  quoins '  being  driven 
in  at  opposite  sides  to  make  all  tight. 

By  the  four  opposing  coigns, 
Which  the  world  together  joins. 

Pericles,  iii,   I. 

This  is  just  the  description  of  a  forme  in 
folio    where    two   quoins   on    one    side    are 

37 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

always  opposite  to  two  quoins  on  the  other, 

thus  together  joining  and  tightening  all  the 

separate    stamps.      In    a    quaint    allegorical 

poem,    published    anonymously    about     the 

year  1700,  in  which  the  mystery   of  man's 

redemption  is   symbolised  by  the  mystery  of 

Printing,  the  author  commences  thus  : 

Great  blest  Master  Printer,  come 
Into  thy  Composing-room  ; 

and     after     *  spiritualising '     the     successive 

operations    of   the    workman    thus    touches 

upon  the  quoins  : 

Let  the  Quoins  be  thy  sure  Election, 
Which  admits  of  no  Rejection  ; 
With  which  our  Souls  being  joined  about, 
Not  the  least  Grace  can  then  fall  out. 

Here,  the  idea  of  joining  togteher  by  quoins 

so    that   nothing   shall    fall    out,   is   just    the 

same   as   in   the   couplet  quoted  from  Shak- 

spere. 

The  tightening  of  these  quoins  by  means 

of  a  wooden-headed  mallet, 

(There  -is  no  more  conceit  in  him   than  is  in  a  mallet, 

2  Henry  IV,  ii,  4), 

is  called  'locking  up',  an  exclusively  tech- 
nical term.  The  expression,  however,  oc- 
curs in  'Measure  for  Measure',  IV,  2, 

Fast  locked  up  in  sleep, 
where  the  idea  conveyed  is  the  same. 

38 


SHAKSPERE  AND    TYPOGRAPHY 

The  *  Forme  '  worked  off  and  the  metal 
chase  removed,  leaving  the  pages  'naked', 
affords  the  Poet  the  following  simile,  which  , 
although  not  carrying  to  the  popular  ear  any 
typographical  meaning,  was  doubtless  sug- 
gested by  Shakspere's  former  experience  of 
the  workshop  : 

And  he  but  naked  though  locked  up  in  steel. 

2  Henry  VI,  iii,  2. 

The  primary  idea  of  '  locking  up '  had, 
doubtless,  reference  to  '  armour '  ;  the 
secondary  to  printing,  as  shown  by  the  use 
of  the  word  *  naked  \ 

The  forme  then  went  to  the  Press-room, 
where  considerable  ingenuity  was  required 
to  make  *  register';  that  is,  to  print  one 
side  so  exactly  upon  the  other,  that  when 
the  sheet  was  held  up  to  the  light  the  lines 
on  each  side  would  exactly  back  one  another. 
The  accuracy  of  judgment  required  for  this 
is  thus  glanced  at  : 

Eno.      But  let  the  world  rank  me  in  register 
A  master-leaver  and  a  fugitive. 

Antony  and   Cleopatra,  iv,  9. 

When  the  green-eyed   Othello  takes  his 

wife's  hand  and   exclaims  : 

Here  's  a  young  and  sweating  devil, 

Othello,  iii,  4, 

we  fail  at  first  to  catch   the  idea  of  the  Poet 

39 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

in  calling  a  hand  a  *  devil  ' ;  but  take  the 
word  as  synonymous  with  '  messenger',  and 
.we  see  at  once  how  the  moist  plump  palm 
of  Desdemona  suggested  to  the  intensely 
jealous  husband  the  idea  of  its  having  been 
the  lascivious  messenger  of  her  impure  de- 
sires. In  this  sense  of  'messenger',  the 
word  c  devil  '  has  a  special  fitness  ;  for  it  is, 
and  always  has  been  among  Printers,  and 
Printers  only,  another  word  for  c  errand- 
boy'.  In  olden  times,  when  speed  was  re- 
quired, a  boy  stood  at  the  off-side  of  the 
press,  and  as  soon  as  the  frisket  was  raised, 
whipped  the  printed  sheet  off  the  tympan. 
When  not  at  work,  he  ran  on  messages  be- 
tween printer  and  author,  who,  on  account 
of  his  inky  defilement,  dubbed  him  'devil'. 
All  Printers'  boys  go  now  by  the  same 
name  : 

Old  Lucifer,  both   kind  and  civil, 
To  ev'rv  Printer  lends  a  Devil ; 
But  balancing  accounts  each  winter, 
For  ev'ry  Devil  takes  a  Printer. 

Moxon,  in  1683,  quotes  it  as  an  old  trade 
word,  and  it  was  doubtless  the  same  in 
Shakspere's  time,  a  centurv  earlier,  as  it  is 
now  two  centuries  later.  But  where  could 
Shakspere  have  picked  up  the  word  if  not  in 
the  Printing-office  ? 

40 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

Any  one  accustomed  to  collate  old  MSS. 
must  have  noticed  how  very  seldom  the 
copyist  would,  in  transcribing,  add  nothing 
and  omit  nothing.  If  what  the  scribe  con- 
sidered a  good  idea  entered  his  mind  while 
his  pen  was  travelling  over  the  page,  he  was 
a  very  modest  penman  indeed,  if  he  did  not 
incorporate  it  in  the  text.  From  this  cause, 
and  from  genuine  unintentional  blunders, 
the  texts  of  all  the  old  authors  had  become 
gradually  very  corrupt — a  source  of  great 
trouble  to  the  early  Printers.  With  this  in 
his  mind  Shakspere  defines  it  as  one  of  the 
qualities  of  Time 

To  blot  old  books  and  alter  their  contents. 

Lucrece.  1     948. 

Many  of  Vautrollier's  publications  must 
have  been  printed  from  discolored  old  manu- 
scripts ;  and  these  papers  Shakspere,  if  he 
read  '  proof  for  his  employer,  would  have 
to  study  carefully.  Does  he  call  this  to 
mind  in  Sonnet  XVII  ? 

My  papers  yellowed  with  their  age. 

Was  it,  after  admiring  some  beautifully  il- 
luminated  Horae,  that  he  wrote  : 

4* 


SHAKSPERE   AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

O  that  record  could  with  a  backward  look, 
E'en  of  five  hundred  courses  of  the  sun  j 

Show  me  your  image  in  some  antique  book, 
Since  mind  at  first  in  character  was  done. 

Sonnet  lix. 

Does  the  Poet  refer  to  its  wonderfully  bur- 
nished gold  initials,  and  the  red  dominical 
letters  which  he  must  often  have  seen  in  the 
printed  calendars,  when  he  exclaims  in  tones 
of  admiration  : 

My  red  dominical — my  golden  letter  ! 

Love's  Labour  Lost,  v,  2. 

The  old  calendar  had  a  golden  number  and 
a  dominical  letter,  but  not  a  golden  letter, 
which  last  must  refer  specifically  to  the 
practice  of  gilding  important  initials.  '  Gold- 
en Letters'  are  mentioned  in  'King  John', 
III,  i,  and  in  *  Pericles',  IV,  4,  while  the 
red  initials,  which  were  common  to  both 
manuscripts  and  printed  books  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  are  made  by  Shakspere  the 
death  warrant  of  the  unfortunate  Clerk  of 
Chatham,  against  whom  is  brought  the  fatal 
accusation  that  he 

Has  a  book  in  his   pocket  with  red  letters  in  't. 

2  Henry  VI,  iv,  2. 

In  Shakspere' s  time,  as  we  have  already 
noticed  (p.  41,  ante),  the  press  laboured 
under  great  restrictions.      All  books  with  a 

42 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

profitable  circulation  were  monopolised  by- 
favored  stationers  or  printers  who  held 
special  patents  or  licenses  from  the  Crown. 
Thus  Reynold  Wolfe,  in  1543,  held  a  mo- 
nopoly of  all  books  printed  in  Hebrew, 
Greek,  or  Latin.  Seres  was  privileged  to 
print  all  psalters,  primers,  and  prayer  books  ; 
Denham  might  print  the  New  Testament  in 
Welch  ;  others  held  grants  for  scholastic  or 
legal  books,  for  almanacs,  and  even  for 
broadsides,  or  as  the  grant  says  '  for  any 
piece  of  paper  printed  on  one  side  of  the 
sheet  only  '.  In  these  favored  books  it  was 
customary  to  place  the  patent  granting  the 
monopoly  at  the  end,  as  a  *  caveat '  for 
other  printers,  and  occasionally  the  phrase 
*  Cum  privilegio  ad  imprimendum  solum  ' 
would  appear  in  a  conspicuous  part  of  the 
title.  Among  the  printers  in  London,  who 
secured  such  special  privileges,  was  Vau- 
trollier,  Shakspere's  presumed  employer. 
'In  the  sixteenth  year  of  Elizabeth,  19th 
June,  1574',  says  Ames,  'a  patent  or  li- 
cense was  granted  him  which  he  often 
printed  at  the  end  of  the  New  Testament ' ; 
this  was  a  monopoly  of  Beza's  New  Testa- 
ment which  Vautrollier  had  the  privilege 
'ad  imprimendum  solum',  for  the  term  of 
ten    years.       We    have    already     seen    the 

43 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

curious  connection  between  the  products  of 
Vautrollier's  press  and  the  writings  of  Shak- 
spere,  and  we  now  plainly  perceive  what 
was  floating  in  the  Poet's  brain  when  he 
placed  the  following  speech  in  Biondello's 
mouth,  who  urges  Lucentio  to  marry  Bianca, 
while  her  father  and  the  pedant  are  discuss- 
ing the  marriage  treaty  : 

Luc.     And  what  of  all  this  ? 

Bion.  I  cannot  tell;  expect  they  are  busied 
about  a  counterfeit*  assurance:  Take  your  assurance  of 
her  cum  pri-vilegio  ad  imprimendum  solum :  to  the 
church  ; — take  the  priest,  clerk,  and  some  sufficient 
honest  witnesses. 

Taming  of  the  Shreiv,  iv,  4. 

These  protective  privileges,  *  ad  imprimen- 
dum solum',  instead  of  a  benefit  were  a 
great  hindrance  to  the  growth  of  Printing. 
Many  master-printers  even  then  felt  them 
to  be  so,  and  by  all  legal  and  sometimes  il- 
legal means,  tried  to  procure  the  abolition  of 
laws  which  were  oppressive  and  restrictive. 
They  saw  works 'of  merit  die  out  of  memory 

*  This  word  '  counterfeit '  in  the  sense  of  '  reprint  ' 
or  'duplicate',  is  certainly  not  used  now-a-days  by 
English  printers;  yet  I  find  this  in  Marahren's  Parallel 
List  of  technical  Typographical  terms  : — '  Counterfeit, 
to,  or  to  Reprint,  v.,  Nachdrucken. — Re-imprimer.' 
With  Bibliographers  the  word  is  still  retained ;  e.g. 
'  Lyons  counterfeits  of  the  Aldine  editions.' 

44 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

for  want  of  enterprise  in  the  patentee — 
they  saw  folly,  in  the  shape  of  a  Star-cham- 
ber, controlling  skill;  or  as  Shakspere  him- 
self expresses  it, 

Art  made  tongue-tied  by  authority, 

And  Folly  (doctor-like),*  controlling  skill. 

Sonnet  lxvi. 

Shakspere  abounds  in  kisses  of  every  hue, 
from  shadowy,  frozen,  and  Judas  kisses,  to 
holy,  true,  gentle,  tender,  warm,  sweet, 
loving,  dainty,  kind,  soft,  long,  hard,  zealous, 
burning,  and  even  the  unrequited  kiss : 

But  my  kisses  bring  again 
Seals  of  love,  but  seal'd  in  vain. 

Measure  for  Measure,  iii,  I. 

The  '  burning '  kiss  might  be  thought  pas- 
sionate and  even  durable  enough  for  any 
extremity — yet  Shakspere  prefers,  perhaps 
from  an  unconscious  association  of  ideas, 
the  durability  of  which  Printing  is  the  em- 
blem when  he  makes  the  Goddess  of  Love 
exclaim  : 

Pure  lips,  sweet  seals  on  my  soft  lips  imprinted. 

Venus  and  Adonis,  1.    511. 

*  And  Folly  [doctor-like)  controlling  skill.  It  is 
worth  noting,  that  in  none  of  the  various  volumes 
written  to  show  Shakspere' s  knowledge  of  medicine 
and  medical  men,  has  the  truth  of  this  passage  been 
brought  forward  in  evidence. 

45 


SHAKSPERE  AND  TYPOGRAPHY 

The  same  idea  of  durability  is  expressed  in 
the  cry  of  Henry's  guilty  Queen,  when 
parting  with  Suffolk  : 

Oh,  could  this  kiss  be  printed  on  thy  hand  ! 

2  Henry  VIy  iil,  2. 

The  idea  has  been  still  further  developed  in 
the  following  anonymous  quatrain  : 

a  printer's  kisses. 

Print  on  my  lips  another  kiss, 

The  picture  of  my  glowing  passion 

Nay,  this  wont  do — nor  this}  nor  this  5 
But  now — Ay,  that  *S  a  proof  impression. 

Many  of  Vautrollier's  publications  went 
through  several  editions.  In  the  '  Merry 
Wives',  II,  1,  Mistress  Page  says  : 

These  are  of  the  second  edition, 

and  well  can  we  imagine  Shakspere   handing 

'"■    volumes  to  a  buyer   with  the   same  remark, 

or  asking  some  patron  with  whom  he  was  a 

favourite  : 

Com' st  thou  with  deep  premeditated  lines, 
With  written  pamphlet  studiously  devised  ? 

I  Henry  VI,  iii,  1, 

as  the  author  entered  with  a  roll  of  '  copy  ' 
in  his  hand. 

In  the  deep  mine  from  which  the  fore- 
going quotations  have  been  dug,  many  oth- 
ers would   doubtless   reward  a  more  careful 

46 


SHAKSPERE  AND   TYPOGRAPHY 

search.  As  it  is,  numerous  allusions, 
which,  though  plain  to  a  printer,  would 
seem  too  forced  to  the  general  public,  have 
been  passed  over.  Enough,  however,  has 
probably  been  brought  forward  to  justify 
the  belief  pourtrayed  in  the  title-page,  viz.:* 
That  Sbakspere  must  have  passed  some  of 
his  early  years  in  a  Printing-office. 


M 


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